Conventionally, a memory card, which is a card type storage, is known.
This memory card adopts a flash memory as a storage medium. Thus, the memory card is small-sized, hardly consumes electric power for reading out and writing data, and does not require a driving device unlike disk type storages such as a flexible disk (FD) and a magneto-optical disk (MO).
Therefore, the memory card is widely spread as a storage medium for portable apparatuses such as a digital camera, a cellular phone with camera, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a note type personal computer, and a portable music player.
Incidentally, the memory card had a small storage capacity and was expensive compared with the disk type storages such as a flexible disk (FD) and a magneto-optical disk (MO). However, the storage capacity of the memory card has been increased to about 128 MB at the maximum as the technology has made progress in recent years. In addition, in accordance with the spread of the portable apparatuses with the memory card, the memory card has been produced in large quantities. As a result, a price of the memory card has fallen.
The memory card is connected to a connector mounted on the portable apparatuses. As such a connector, a popup type connector, in which a memory card can be inserted easily, is known (see, for example, JP-A-2000-259780).
JP-A-2000-259780 discloses an IC card inserting device equivalent to the connector of the present invention. This IC card inserting device includes: a planar holder for being inserted in and pulled out from a housing of an apparatus; an elastic conductor which is provided on this holder; and a connector which is provided on the holder for rotating freely. The elastic conductor has a pair of leaf spring members with different heights.
According to this IC card inserting device, after memory cards are inserted in the connector on the holder, this connector is rotated to dispose the memory cards in a state in which the memory cards are inclined with respect to a surface of the holder. In this state, the memory cards are supported by the elastic conductor and partially overlap each other on the holder.
Thereafter, when the holder is inserted in the housing of the apparatus, the respective memory cards are pushed against the elastic conductor on the holder and connected to an electrode portion. At the same time, the respective memory cards are held in the housing.
Therefore, according to the IC card inserting device, since the IC card inserting device can be formed in a planar shape, a reduction in height for the apparatus can be realized.
However, although a reduction in size and a reduction in height for a portable apparatus are demanded, it is difficult to apply the IC card inserting device of JP-A-2000-259780 to the portable apparatus because the structure of the IC card inserting device is complicated.
In order to solve this problem, a connector 2A having a structure as described below has been proposed.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the connector 2A in accordance with a first conventional example.
The connector 2A is mounted on a printed board incorporated in an apparatus, and a memory card is electrically connected to the connector 2A.
The connector 2A includes a substantially rectangular cylindrical housing 21 and plural elastically deformable contacts 23 which are provided inside the housing 21.
In the housing 21, a card insertion slot 22, which is cut and formed at one end side of the housing 21, an abutting portion 22B, which is provided on the other end side of the housing 21 of the card insertion slot 22, and a contact housing portion 24, which is cut and formed to be opposed to the card insertion slot 22, are formed. A thickness of the contact housing portion 24 is assumed to be h1.
Each of the plural contacts 23 includes a fixed portion 23A which is supported in the contact housing portion 24 and an elastic portion 23B which extends from the fixed portion 23A to the other end side of the housing 21 and the abutting portion 22B.
The fixed portion 23A is supported on one end side of the housing 21 among edges of the contact housing portion 24.
A projection 23C of an arc shape is formed at a distal end of the elastic portion 23B. A gap is formed slightly between a distal end of the projection 23C and an inner wall surface of the housing 21. In addition, a gap between the projection 23C of the contact 23 and the abutting portion 22B is larger than a thickness of a memory card 1.
Next, an operation of the connector 2A for holding the memory card 1 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6D.
First, the memory card 1 is inserted in the card insertion slot 22. Next, a proximal end side of the memory card 1 is inclined to one end side of the housing 21. Then, the contact 23 is pressed by the memory card 1 to be elastically deformed and housed in the contact housing portion 24. Consequently, the memory card 1 is held between the contact 23 and the abutting portion 22B. As a result, the memory card 1 is connected to the contact 23.
Therefore, according to this connector 2A, a connector can be easily constituted and a reduction in height therefore can be realized.
Next, an operation of the connector 2A in the case of mishandling the memory card 1 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6D.
First, the memory card 1 is inserted in the card insertion slot 22 in a state shown in FIG. 6A. Then, as shown in FIG. 6B, since the gap between the projection 23C of the contact 23 and the abutting portion 22B is larger than the thickness of the memory card 1, the memory card 1 comes into a loosely fit state. Next, when this memory card 1 is inclined to the other end side of the housing 21 by mistake, as shown in FIGS. 6C and 6D, the distal end of the memory card 1 is caught in the projection 23C of the contact 23 and presses the contact 23 toward the one end side of the housing 21 to deform the contact 23 exceeding an elastic limit. As a result, the contact 23 is likely to be broken.
Thus, in order to solve such a problem, a connector 2B as shown in FIG. 7 has been proposed.
In the connector 2B, a projection 23D of the contact 23 has a shape obtained by extending the projection 23C of an arc shape of the contact 23 along a circumferential direction thereof. In other words, a distal end of the projection 23D is in the contact housing portion 24 of the housing 21.
Therefore, since the projection 23D is not separated from the inner wall surface like the projection 23D, the distal end of the memory card 1 can be prevented from being caught in the contact 23.
However, in the connector 2B, a thickness of the projection 23D of the contact 23 increases. Thus, it is necessary to set the thickness of the contact housing portion 24 to h2 which is larger than h1. Therefore, it is necessary to set a height of the connector 2B to H2 which is larger than H1, and it is difficult to realize the reduction in height for the connector.